sarashina diary

lens-artists photo challenge: the letter A

PA Moed invites us to share images that feature a subject that begins with the letter A. Hum…can tone be a subject? Or am I being a bit of a rebel by featuring double exposure photography with “A” toned luminosity masks (amber, azure, and amethyst with their contrasting tones)?

Had I not seen erect in the river
These solid timbers of the olden time
How could I know, how could I feel
The story of that house? ~The Sarashina Diary (cited: Diaries of Court Ladies of Old Japan)

double exposure… amber tone

That moonless, flowerless winter night
It penetrates my thought and makes me dwell on it–
        I wonder why? ~The Sarashina Diary (cited: Diaries of Court Ladies of Old Japan)

double exposure…azure tone

Do you see that the little night opens 1
And on the ridge of the mountain, serenely bright,
Shines the moon of a night of Autumn? ~ Diary of Izumi Shikibu (cited: Diaries of Court Ladies of Old Japan)

double exposure…amethyst

Nikon D750 f/4.8 1/800s 65mm 100 ISO

Applying a subtle color to the highlights and shadows/ of your black and white photographs gives you a slice of the emotional qualities that color can offer, without disguising the depth and texture of your black and white photograph.

lens-artist photo challenge: layered

Ceaseless tears–clouded mind: 
Bright scene–moon-shadow.

~The Sarashina Diary

(cited: Trans: AS Omori & K Doi, Diaries of Court Ladies of Old Japan)

Cameron Pass, Colorado 2018 Nikon D750 f/4.5 1/800s 24mm 100 ISO

Image and poem submitted in response to Lens-Artists Photo Challenge: layered

weekly photo challenge: the journey home

The last part of the Diary [Sarashina Diary] is concerned chiefly with accounts of pilgrimages and dreams. She married, who and when is not recorded, and bore children. Her husband dies, and with his death the spring of her life seems to have run down. Her last entry is very sad: “My people went to live elsewhere and I lived alone in my solitary home.” So we leave her “a beautiful, shy spirit whose life had known much sorrow.” ~Diaries of Court Ladies of Old Japan

Nikon D750   f/5.6  1/400s   125mm   4000 ISO

Image and excerpt from Diaries of Court Ladies of Old Japan submitted in response to Traveling at Wits End’s photo challenge: the journey home.